The Long Wait
by KT4ever
Summary: Obi-Wan get sick while on a training mission


This is my first Star Wars story, so please be kind I DO so love reviews! Just a note to those that really own Star Wars—please don't arrest me for playing with your toys- I promise to give them all back and not do anything that would make me money with them. Besides, I couldn't pay the 10% bail that I learned about in school this year.

This is PRE Phantom Menace. Obi-Wan is like 20.

Obi-Wan Kenobi blinked rapidly trying to clear the tears that clouded his vision. The pain was horrid. It flowed through his body without mercy and he was nearly to the point of wishing that death would take him because at least it would put him out of his misery. As another wave of pain rolled in, his body bucked and a moan escaped his lips.

Qui-Gon Jinn held his apprentice against his chest and murmured soft words of comfort into the boy's ear. This was suppose to have been a simple training exercise, but had turned into a living nightmare. The weeklong trip was supposed to have ended with a day of relaxation as they waited for their transport.

They had been dropped off four days ago for training, and had one night left before morning. The communicators had been lost somewhere in a river and now, neither master or Padawan could do anything but wait for the dawn of the fifth day and with it the arrival of their transport back to the temple.

The first day had gone by well enough, but by nightfall the Jedi master knew that something was seriously wrong with his twenty-year-old apprentice. Obi-Wan had been denying pain, but his master clearly saw it. His hand kept going to his stomach. Just after they'd turned in for the night his apprentice was up vomiting the entirety of the dinner he'd eaten just a hour ago. By morning he'd lost all his appetite and was in much more pain than the preceding day.

Another moan brought the Jedi Master out of his own thoughts.

"Master." Obi-Wan grounded out in a barely audible whisper. "It really hurts!" His breathing was rapid and his hands clutched at his stomach.

"I know Padawan. Just try and breathe through the pain. Come morning we will be on the transport back to the temple. Qui-Gon carded his fingers of one hand through Obi-Wan's hair as he tried to comfort his apprentice. The other hand was over the two that belonged to his apprentice. The pain seemed to lessen when there was pressure on the area, but came back ten fold when that pressure was released.

In truth, Qui-Gon was as frustrated as Obi-Wan. He'd tried a healing trance but that it hadn't work. A scan had revealed an issue in his stomach area, which is where the pain was originating. The Jedi Master held the boy to his chest as they lay in the darkness of the warm night. However, the heat of the summer from the planet was only adding insult to injury. The Jedi master could feel the heat radiating off Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon had torn fabric from his shirt and had made a couple rags with which to wet with the water from the canteens and place on his apprentice's face. He'd even gone so far as too wet down Obi-Wan's hair in hope to lower the fever.

However, all his efforts were in vain and the fever never stayed gone long and was only rising. Qui-Gon grabbed one of the rags he'd torn and wetted it then exchanged it for the one on Obi-Wan's forehead.

The Jedi Master took in the appearance of this Padawan and prayed that help would arrive soon. His skin was pale and soaked with a heavy layer of sweat. The skin around his changeable blue yes had sunken in was near black with discoloration from three days of torture combined in a sicken combination of lack of sleep, pain, and malnutrition. Qui-Gon hadn't gotten much sleep either, but to him it didn't matter. Someone had to be there for his apprentice and it was job he would not have handed over to anyone even if someone had been around.

Another moan escaped from the Padawan that lay on the grass floor. "I can't do this anymore, master. I can't-"

"Hush young one. Just breathe. You CAN do this. It is going to be all right. The transport arrives at dawn. We just have to make it a little longer. You can do anything for a few more hours," the Jedi Master reassured his apprentice.

Obi-Wan shook his head. "No. No. I can't master!"

Obi- Wan tried to get up or move, but his master tightened his arms around him and without any strength- Obi-Wan gave up.

Qui-Gon leaned in close to Obi-Wan right ear. "You. Can. Do. This. I know you have much strength in you and all you have to do is believe. Now rest Padawan. I'll wake you when the transport arrives." The last sentence was laced with a heavy sleep- suggestion and Qui-Gon was relieved as he watched Obi-Wan's eyes slip shut. He knew from past experience it wouldn't last long.

Qui-Gon readjusted his cloak that had slipped down with Obi-Wan's feeble attempt to move. He also rewet a rag and exchanged it out, again, for the one on Obi-Wan's head. He looked up at the sky and knew that it was still several hours before dawn.

Qui-Gon entered a light meditation, still keeping one part of himself centered on his Padawan should the boy need him. This type of mediation helped Jedi stave off sleep and still have energy. It was used in desperate times, and the Jedi master assigned this time as a time of desperate need.

The exhausted Jedi Master guessed he'd only been mediating for a hour or so when he heard the first tell tale signs of awareness from his apprentice. The moans came softly and the brow on his face furrowed as Obi-Wan fought his way out of the sleep suggestion his master had given him.

"Master," Obi-Wan whispered with a dry, rough voice, "the pain stopped."

Qui-Gon eyes narrowed with this information. He wasn't certain why his heart just dropped into his stomach, but it had. It now felt like he was in the eye of the storm.

Keeping his voice steady he replied, "Well that might be a good sign my Padawan. Maybe the worst had passed and by the time the transport gets here all you will need is just some rest."

Though his voice was calm, the Jedi Master was anything but. However, he kept his shields firmly in place to keep his fear from his apprentice. He had released much of it and is irritation for the situation into the force, but he was still on edge and the last thing he wanted was for his emotions to leak over the bond and stress Obi-Wan out more than he already was.

What concerned Qui-Gon is that fact that the fever hadn't lowered at all. So even if the pain was gone, he was still certain that Obi-Wan was not cured of whatever had been ailing him to begin with.

"How much longer do you think Master?" Obi-Wan asked the question in his rough and dry voice- a voice weak from fever and lack of water. Qui-Gon hadn't given much of anything to drink because Obi-Wan had vomited everything up that had been given too him. So his master had eventually stopped.

"Not long." Qui-Gon knew that had been his pat answer for a while now and it really still numbered several hours. He tore another strip of cloth, the cleanest one he could find, and soaked it in water. Than put it to Obi-Wan's lips.

"Here," Qui-Gon said softly, keeping his voice calm and soft. "Suck. Not too much though."

He was grateful when Obi-Wan did, even if he did it weakly. Eventually Obi-Wan stopped drinking only to cough and when he did, the pain returned as he moved.

Qui-Gon held him tightly and murmured softly a mantra into Obi-Wan's ear. The nonsensical words were second nature to the elder Jedi. He'd been saying them so often over the last few days that he didn't even realize he was saying them anymore.

"Try and rest Padawan," Qui-Gon encouraged after the coughing had stopped and the pain had lessened. He was grateful when his student took this idea to heart, and watched as ginger lashes closed after a few moments and breaths evened out to a stay rise and fall.

Once the student was asleep, the Jedi Master said a silent prayer of thanks. The child was pain free and help would be arriving soon for Qui-Gon could see the sun starting to rise.

He waited out the sun as it rose, knowing that they higher it got the closer the transport would be. However, as the day drug on, Qui-Gon had found his patients being tested. Obi-Wan had began moaning again, but had managed to stay asleep thus far. However, the fever that had been there all along seemed to be climbing steadily. The Jedi Master had taken to wetting both cloths at once and placing one on top of the ginger hair and one behind the neck of his Padawan. It was a battle the Jedi Master was losing, and worse, he knew it. This enemy was besting him in the fight of his life.

"DON'T!" The shouted word came from the sleeping apprentice who appeared awake. He grabbed onto his master's arm as he tried to pull him self to stand.

"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said sternly. "Calm down Padawan."

"We have to leave! They are coming the ants are going to eat us!"

Qui-Gon swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Obi-Wan there is noting going to eat us. I promise I won't let that happen."

The elder Jedi pulled the younger down onto the ground forcefully and then wrapped both arms around the smaller chest, thus trapping Obi-Wan's arms to his body. The apprentice bucked for a few moments trying to escape the hold he was in. He looked off to his right as if he could see something. His eyes were wide and his face pale and sweating. Qui-Gon knew he was hallucinating, but could do nothing as long as he had to hold the young man from hurting himself.

"They are right there Master!" Obi-Wan was screaming, near hysterics. "They are right there!"

Qui-Gon looked in the direction that Obi-Wan was indicating only to sigh with relief. He could see Jedi in the distance. There were two walking his way and he was grateful. As they came closer into view he recognized Mace Windu and Jedi Master Talkien. The pair could hear the screams of the Padawan and the raced over.

"What's going on Qui-Gon?" The council master asked his long time friend as the two Jedi Masters came to a stop next to the master and Padawan pair.

"He's been sick the last few days and now he is hallucinating," Qui-Gon said while still holding his bucking apprentice. However, he had felt the boy weaken with each moment and hoped the fight would soon stop.

"I have a medical kit on the ship," Master Talkien said as he turned and ran back to the ship. Mace knelt forward and pinned the legs of the Padawan down as they waited for the return of the medical kit.

Master Talkien returned in record time.

"Sedative," he asked looking at Qui-Gon.

The Jedi Master looked at his struggling apprentice and then nodded his approval.

"I haven't been able to keep him asleep for any good length of time. He wakes after a few hours in pain," Qui-Gon explained. He didn't like using drugs, but felt that this time it was the only way to get his apprentice aboard the ship without hurting them or Obi-Wan.

The hypospray was handed to Mace who placed it on the apprentice's neck and pressed the button releasing the drug into the padawan's system. It took only moments, but soon the apprentice stopped struggling and feel limply asleep in his master's arms.

Qui-Gon let out a deep sigh of relief and then said, "We need to get him back to the temple."

Then he readjusted his position and stood, stretching muscles that had been in much the same position for the last few days. Then he knelt down and lifted his apprentice into his arms.

"You want me to take him," Mace offered as the three Jedi Masters walked towards the ship with their young cargo.

"I've got him, but thank you Mace."

Once they were on the ship, Master Talkien went to the cockpit and began the take off procedure. Mace and Qui-Gon secured the ailing Padawan in the only bunk on the small ship. Even with the drug in his system, Obi-Wan moaned. However, if it was from pain or dreams, neither knew.

"We should be there in a couple hours," Master Talkien said as he reappeared from the cockpit. We were on our way home when the Temple asked us to grab you since you were on our way. "

Qui-Gon smiled a small smile of thanks and returned his attention to his apprentice. Which is where his attentions remain for the rest and when they landed. Medical personal were waiting and rushed the waking apprentice off to the healing ward. Qui-Gon set outside with Mace as they waited for word of what the problem was.

It didn't take land for soon the Master Healer on duty came out and explained that the apprentice had suffered from acute appendicitis and that, sadly, without quick treatment the appendix had ruptured.

"That," the healer said, "is when the pain stopped. He's lucky. Were are going to take him to surgery, but he should make a full recovery."

Qui-Gon nodded as the healer turned and walked away leaving the two masters sitting alone.

"Go change Qui-Gon. I'll stay till you do and eat. Then come back. You have been through some long days and nights."

Qui-Gon smiled at his friend. Mace Windu was the iron fist of the Jedi Council. He struck fear into all initiates and many Padawans until they grew older. Some Knights still hated to go in front of him, but Qui-Gon knew that he was caring person.

"Thank you Mace. I'll be back shortly." Qui-Gon knew better than to argue. He was dirty, and probably smelled- if the wrinkled noses of the healing staff were any indication. So he stood and walked off towards his quarters to shower and change. On his way back he grabbed a bit of food and found his friend still sitting in the chair were he had been when Qui-Gon left.

"Thank you," Qui-Gon said as he came to a stop. "Any word?"

"Still in surgery. I'm going to make a report to the council then I'll come back by."

Qui-Gon sat in the chair and watched as his friend walked off down the hall. Then he slid to his knees to mediate in the quiet room while he waited- again for his ever-troublesome apprentice.

Finished:0


End file.
